How many?
How matrices and Neurotowers did Wyrde need to pull it off? How long did they have before she could pull it off?
“Months. Less. More.”
Shit.
And Earth would be at the center of it all. The point where it all began. The original world of the Maleking, of Concordia. The first link of the chain of Matrices that would kickstart a grand reboot, bigger than anything Shroud himself could pull off.
Okay, okay. Okay. Think Shroud. Thin...
2019-08-28 13:00:02 +0000 UTC
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That disloyal minion!
“You thankless traitor!” Vainqueur lambasted Minion Victor in front of the terrified kobolds, the sheer power of his voice making him fall down on the sand. “You, you… you goblin, how could you do this to me?!”
“I swear, Your Majesty, this is not what it looks like!”
“It is exactly what it looks like!” Vainqueur replied. “I turn my back on you for five minutes, five minutes, and you cheat on me with another dragon! And a wyv...
2019-08-27 17:37:26 +0000 UTC
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Located on a creek near the docks, Haudemer’s temple was a rather large stony church by manling standards. According to Manling Victor, due to Haudemer being a small town, the twelve ‘gods’—Vainqueur couldn’t help but chuckle at the word—the manlings worshipped had to share the same temple.
From what he had understood, puny species worshipped these stronger creatures the same way minions obeyed their dragon masters, with the bonus of being promised a place at their side afte...
2019-08-27 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Instead of breeding, Manling Victor had adopted a full litter of new minions.
And already they proved useful. “Master Vainqueur, Master Vainqueur!” Yellow, the kobold with the best nose, pointed a claw at a bush, the dragon smelling a manling hiding there. “I found another!”
Vainqueur let out a roar, raising the giant axe Ogron the one-eyed ogre had kindly given him…
Or rather, struggling, as he couldn’t keep the axe properly aligned even while wieldi...
2019-08-24 13:26:19 +0000 UTC
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The paths of Network appeared to him as he focused.
Perhaps having his consciousness reduced to information, the purest expression of Blue Sorcery, gave Shroud greater insight into his Lock. Perhaps he always could access its deeper layers, but simply never got around to doing it.
Whatever the case, as he focused on his Lock alone, leaving out whatever information of the outside world his mind could perceive, Shroud began to see the world in a different way than he ever did before...
2019-08-21 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Henry knocked on the door with impatience, a book under his arm.
He wondered who owned the house. Located in the outskirts of Haudemer, many thought it abandoned, its owner absent, and his host had indicated she only rented it for a while. Thorns and weeds had taken roots in the garden and the stone walls, while the shutters remained firmly closed. No matter the outside spookiness, he had run towards the place as soon as he read the invitation.
“Professor Henry.” A...
2019-08-17 14:51:33 +0000 UTC
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Victor let out a moan of pleasure, as he sank in the warm, hot bath. So good!
Lynette’s inn was a top-notch establishment, a stone mansion renovated into a resort for adventurers and merchants; he had his own private room with a king-sized bed and full access to a private bath in the back.
Victor had left his clothes and weapons nearby, just in case. He had had a nasty experience with a naked ambush in the past, and it didn’t hurt to be paranoid.
Victor glanced at ...
2019-08-15 16:01:00 +0000 UTC
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“Come to us, Martel.”
Mathias opened his eyes and found himself in a dead mental world.
A mindscape. A mental world recorded in Dis’ databanks, as an extension of the caster’s mind. It was the acme of Blue Spells, a private universe of pure thought, where the caster could invite or trap other, lesser minds.
Yet Aster’s mindscape was nothing but a white, endless landscape. A silent, immaculate landscape, under a cloudless blue sky; a lifeless world without war...
2019-08-14 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
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“Are we there yet?” Vainqueur asked for the hundredth time, as they flew over yet another stinking human village.
“Nope, sorry,” manling Victor replied, his eyes set on the map he struggled to keep pace with the wind. “Ogron was last seen near Haudemer, and this is Pointin.”
“How do you know?” Vainqueur lambasted his minion guide. They had flown all the way across the land, almost reaching the western sea; yet missed the target. “All of your dirty villages ...
2019-08-13 16:00:04 +0000 UTC
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When the marquise had invited Victor to a private breakfast in her apartments, Victor had expected everything but an actual breakfast. Maybe a poisoned meal, or being made into the breakfast, or maybe fed to a lion. Not an actual, pleasant breakfast with the lady of the house and the Count of Provencal.
Of course, she had four knights ready to chop his head off at any moment, alongside a few catkin butlers, but he was thankful for the meal all the same. It had been a whil...
2019-08-10 18:01:00 +0000 UTC
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They gave him an aluminum plate tag with his name on it. Him. Like he was some mammal.
“This is degrading!” Vainqueur complained to his loyal lackey Victor, as they flew above the farmlands of Carabas. The news had put him in a foul mood. “Aluminium? Aluminum!”
“Every adventurer starts with an aluminum plate,” Victor explained, the wind in his face causing his lips to move in ways Vainqueur found distracting. “That’s the ra...
2019-08-08 18:01:00 +0000 UTC
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“No.”
Mars, god of war, father of Rome, clenched his fists against the marble ground. He had pleaded his cause with great skill, enough to make even the queen hesitate, only for the king to deny him. “Uncle, why?”
The grim king of Olympus sat firm on his throne of white stone, his posture unbending iron. Great and terrible, the death god Pluto dwarfed Mars in power and size, his body covered in thick, rusted mismatched armor. Each part belonged to a long-gone civilization,...
2019-08-07 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Victor had no idea what he had gotten himself into.
For the first time in his life, he flew outside the confines of a plane. Namely, the dragon carried him in palm—because his back was too good for Victor—as he flew north of the mountain, towards the Valbin village where he took that damn request. Victor hated the experience; not only did he take the icy wind head on in the face, the dragon held him tight and could crush him any moment.
Victor had had terrible luck...
2019-08-06 18:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Vainqueur the Dragon, great calamity of his age, stirred as he awakened from his sleep.
This sixty-feet beast of legends, with scales more radiant than molten rubies and great jet black wings, yawned as he stretched his body, pushing away some of the gold and jewels of his hard-won hoard. How good, he thought, his golden eyes opening and acclimating to the darkness of his cave, to rest on the wages of victory after a feast. He could spend another half a century here if he...
2019-08-03 18:00:02 +0000 UTC
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The goat of the Zodiac glanced at the Dragonslayers, gathered in front of the command center’s room, having gathered all emblems but his own. “I see you completed every trial,” he said. “Including mine.”
“Will you fight us next?” Shroud asked, half-expecting a surprise final battle. He had asked the team to cast buffing spells before returning to the north area, just in case.
The Goat shook his head. “As a wise man once said, to win without fighting is the acme of ...
2019-08-02 13:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The storm of glass shrapnel tried to tear Kari to shreds.
Hands of Slaughter activated in response, the ethereal red arms moving to punch away the projectiles and protect their paralyzed owner. They stopped most of them, but quite a few found a way past the automated defense, aiming to gore her through the chest
Instantly, the spell Reinforce, which Sol had encoded in her clothes, activated in response to the impact. The clothes stopped most projectiles like armor.
...
2019-07-31 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Maggie Powells and Kari Matsumoto sat in a lotus position under the lifeforge, their eyes closed. Kari looked peaceful, while Maggie, not so much.
“Exhale,” Bai Suzhen, who commanded the exercise, advised. “Focus on your body’s sensations. Let the air flow from your lungs to the outside world.”
Shroud watched his friends’ exercise, having denied joining them. Their reactions interested him more than the act itself. Stitch also had declined due to his obvious lack...
2019-07-26 13:01:01 +0000 UTC
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“Level Two is awesome!”
From above one of the frightened monsters’ pens, Shroud looked on with amusement as Maggie practiced her newly obtained Lightningrod spell.
Lightningrod
Affinity: Red
Dot: 2
Price: 6-10
Activation: Passive, Thought.
The caster can perceive, cont...
2019-07-24 13:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Baihu followed a very rigid schedule.
He rose woke up at five, sleeping on the iron floor of his fortified chambers, and exercised for one hour and a half when he woke up. Afterward, he spent one hour praying to statues in his bedroom, a few of them Shroud identified as the Buddha and Hindu divinities. At seven and a half, a maid with a fox tail brought him a meal; the Tiger ate alone and in complete silence.
At nine, he finally emerged from his chambers to oversee his...
2019-07-19 13:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Chest two, unopened. Chest three, unopened…
“Woman, I know you’re enjoying tree-gazing, or whatever,” Sharpshoot complained. “But it’s getting boring real fast here.”
“Now, Sharpshoot, we need to survey our traps,” she replied, although she did take some time gazing at their surroundings as they walked through the forest. She liked to pick up details, see a landmark or secret they missed.
“Maggie sounds better,” she replied, “Sharpshoot is...
2019-07-17 13:01:00 +0000 UTC
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With wards placed on both ends of the Southern Teleporter, Shroud expected it to be a safe night, only to be sorely disappointed. While it was nothing like yesterday’s unrelenting nightmare, three large packs of undead made their way to the island and had to be put down. That implied that while the wards prevented most ghosts to cross into the area, strong ones, like the Maleking before them, could get past them. Sol considered investing in Ward and Accel spells to empower them further.&nbs...
2019-07-12 13:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Manah had a point. Playing the mastermind and spymaster fit his natural strengths better than a frontline fighter.
With the White Snake’s island turned into a temporary camp for the team, Shroud had dispatched various members of the group, managing them from the island, alongside checking up on his clones in the Midnight Market. He had to permanently dispel one to grant Bai Suzhen a taste of the power, leaving the serpent and her double to meditate at the bottom of the lake.
...
2019-07-10 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Alright, here's the poll for August's Quest. Concordia returns this August.
The Troll Factory
Difficulty: Dot Three (Hard)
Sponsor: LoveOrion
Dear hunters, my beast friends tell me of a factory on the jungle planet of Darkthorn, Concordia's latest conquest, and where the Empire experiments with a devastating new kind of monster: war trolls grafted with bioarmors and foul magitech. While imperfect, these troops are to be deployed on E...
2019-07-09 13:01:00 +0000 UTC
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The White Snake lived in a pristine lake at the eastern side of the forest, on a small island at its center, hidden behind a faint white mist. Only a natural bridge of polished stone connected the forest to it.
Finally, Shroud finally had open space to fly.
The lights above had dimmed over time, bathing the forest in a twilight-like atmosphere. The metal slowly cooled down, producing less light and less heat. “No monster has attacked us,” Kari noted. She cle...
2019-07-05 13:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Shroud reconsidered, after shielding his team from a volley of bullets with a shield of lightglass and answering by firing shards at the branches above.
A band of monkey warriors fired from behind the cover of leaves armed with primitive arquebuses. Much like the previous groups, they wore light, boiled leather, and steel armor, with a white tiger insignia proudly displayed on their chest. “Eight,” Shroud said, counting them. “Ten.”
At least these ones didn’t have ...
2019-07-03 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
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The promised day had come.
Shroud glanced at the group gathered on the Overside, surrounded by his own clone mini-army. Each of the Dragonslayers carried a backpack full of food and basic utilities, although some more specialized than others. Maggie, in full costume, carried a bandolier and multiple firearms on her back, enough to make Iron Man blush. Stitch had brought a portable lab in a kit alongside emergency medicine.
And Mur, now constantly using Pitborn, had become the team...
2019-06-28 13:01:01 +0000 UTC
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The Brain Collectors
Difficulty: Dot Two (Medium)
Sponsor: Karolus
Gearsmen creation remains a mystery, especially the organic part of their anatomy. Unfortunately, we have yet to get our hands on intact nerve tissues. Capture a Gearsman, extract nerve samples without damaging them, and hide them in a secure location for eventual extraction. Be sure to wash your han...
2019-06-26 13:01:02 +0000 UTC
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“After a considerable battery of all non-dissection and intrusive brain surgery tests known to my repertoire,” Stitch declared, examining a battery of paper results. “I guarantee that you have no spying device, trap bomb, virus or any particular foreign element in your body.”
“No hidden radio, microphone, nanomachine, alien chest-buster?” Shroud pushed.
“Nothing,” Stitch said. “You are perfectly healthy, and sound of mind.”
Shroud still couldn’t b...
2019-06-19 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
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“You are here to ‘help’?” Mathias asked the saboteur with heavy sarcasm. He couldn’t help himself.
It was the first time he had made peaceful contact with a Concordian official, especially one who tried to exterminate his team… or what could pass for peaceful. The last meeting had him emotionally sedated and went poorly.
— Terminal refused connection. —
And he couldn’t even read her.
The woman—because the armor’s shape c...
2019-06-12 13:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Alright folks, time to choose the Quest tackled inside Taiyougami on July. One of them (the Caged Sun) has been proposed by a patron.
The Caged Sun
Difficulty: Dot Three (Hard)
Sponsor: the Codex.
Not all is as it seems. Taiyougami is the power of life harnessed for destruction. Within many a labyrinthian cage lies secrets. Some are hidden behind false veils that can only be lifted during a Trial...
2019-06-10 13:00:05 +0000 UTC
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